Saturday, February 21, 2009

TED, the opposite of the MSM.

With cable tv, the daily newspaper, wifi in the shop, a desktop an arm's length away from my batch freezer, and a shiny new Ipod Touch in my pocket, it's just way too easy to know exactly what's going on in the world at any given moment. I suppose this wouldn't such a bad thing if all the news was rosey and shiny. But as I'm sure you've noticed, bad news is what sells. And it must be selling well because the bad news seems especially bleak and plentiful these days. The sky over the stock market is truly falling, right along with the housing market, the job market, and the credit market. The farmer's market would probably be falling too, if it were not mercifully spared by the current occupation of winter. With all this negative energy bombarding us every day, I'm surprised we don't all implode into our own pigpen clouds of bleakness.



Too dramatic? It's late, another winter mess approaches, and it seems the deep seated angst over my 401K has taken control of my keyboard.

In any event, I've tried to quit the news, (Dr. Weil calls it a 'news fast' in his book, 8 Weeks to Optimal Health), but with such ready and constant access, it's not so easy. I'm sure you know what I mean, my good FaceBook friends.

So as an alternative, along with taking my vitamins and eating less red meat, I've been hunting around the world wide one in search of more positive information sources. I think I've shared this one already. I've recently discovered another. It's called TED. It's a giant collection of amazing and interesting talks from TED conferences held all over the world. I'm sure few of us have the time (or the $4000) to attend one, but fear not, all the talks are right up there on their site. Free of charge to peruse in your pajamas. You can even get an app for your Iphone and watch 'em while you're in line at the RMV.

I'll let you go find the talks that interest you, should you be inclined, but here are a couple, just to wet your appetite...

Secrets of Success in 8 words, by Richard St. John (this one will only take 3 minutes of your workday)...




Aimee Mullens on running (an amazing & inspiring woman)...





A founding father of the self-help movement, love 'em or hate 'em, Anthony Robbins...




There's plenty more where that came from. Just click on Talks, and you can search by 'most inspiration', 'most jaw-dropping', 'most emailed'...

You've probably been there before, but if not, check it out sometime.

"We're never more beautiful than when we're most ugly." Inspiring stories about everyday people from Chris Abani.


And if you frequent some other sites that are of a positive bent, feel free to drop them into a comment. Thanks in advance.

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